Oh wow pic.twitter.com/XYKymVmhT5
— erica orden (@eorden) May 11, 2017
A little retro humor, for my fellow olds.
The president fired the FBI director to obstruct a federal investigation into possible collusion with a foreign power to fix an election.
— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) May 11, 2017
Well, when you put it all in one single tweet it sounds really godawful. Let's just say a few mistakes were made. https://t.co/NCtH8B1Dr8
— David Simon (@AoDespair) May 12, 2017
Apart from waiting for the Friday Damages Dump, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another hectic week?
.
WH nixes possible Trump visit to FBI HQ; WH was told he was unlikely to be greeted there warmly, per @KenDilanianNBC https://t.co/0GYOt73nDl
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 11, 2017
“Nixes” was an inspired verb choice https://t.co/Nmml9Gib5k
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 11, 2017
If somebody should happen to be considering a 2020 presidential run, this would be a good start…
Senator Kamala Harris calls for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, calls into question his objectivity https://t.co/ioxq2tuhik
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) May 11, 2017
OzarkHillbilly
Why stop at Sessions? The whole criminal conspiracy should resign.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree with you. Don’t stop at Sessions. But PLEASE let’s start there. He is doing some serious damage.
PsiFighter37
I hope she runs.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: Resign? That would require that they have some self-awareness of their crimes. No, let’s frog-march them to Gitmo. I hear Cuba’s lovely this time of year.
satby
Good morning, everyone! Sending peace and love to greennotGreen and her family.
Ben Cisco
@Immanentize: Agreed. He needs to be gone ASAP.
MattF
Calvinist health care plan declares all possible conditions to be pre-existing because it’s all in God’s plan and always has been.
ETA: Via jwz.org.
The Thin Black Duke
Chris Rock once said, “George Bush fucked up so bad, white people said to themselves, ‘what the hell, let’s give the black guy a chance’, and Barack Obama became president.” And since it’s looking like Trump is going to be worse than Bush, maybe the same thing might happen for Kamala Harris? Hey, it’d be the best thing Donald Trump has ever done in his misbegotten life.
Eric S.
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m going to be in your neck of the woods in October. Well, the Ozarks are kind of big so maybe not that close. The car ckub is doing s drive and we are staying at Tan-Tar-a in Osage Lake.
The first night, a Friday, is a free night so looking for things to do or see.
Patricia Kayden
@The Thin Black Duke: I would vote for Senator Harris as President in a heartbeat but we shouldn’t downplay the sexism and racism she’d face. Plus, Republicans would accuse her of having “San Francisco values” and being an ultra liberal. Anyone on our side is better than Trump and hopefully most voters feel that way just about now. He’s certainly doing the best he can to make people feel that way.
Mustang Bobby
@Eric S.: Butting in to ask what car club?
Baud
I don’t want an objective AG. I want one who is anti-Trump the way Elliot Ness was anti-Capone.
rikyrah
Morning Everyone ???
kindness
I miss Barabara Boxer but at least I got Kamala in her place. Now if only DiFi would go so I could get another Democrat instead of the moderate Republican she really is. And no, Gavin Newsome won’t do. He’s a male DiFi.
@Patricia Kayden: But Kamala is from S. Cal. LA values doesn’t sound as bad?
satby
@rikyrah: Morning ? ☕!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Turley is a fucking moron in saying there was no underlying crime.
Watergate involved the theft of DNC documents. This thing is about the theft of DNC documents by criminal act.
satby
@kindness: be careful what you wish for. Either Difi or Newsome are a million % better than any Republican. Not saying a Republican could win there, just saying we need to appreciate a bit more the folks in our side. Making imaginary perfect be the enemy of good is how we got into this mess.
Baud
@rikyrah: Morning.
satby
@Baud: an objective one would be that.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: Porsche Club of America. The obnoxious one.
Of course that doesn’t apply to us in the Chicago chapter. :-)
bystander
@Baud: I want one who is anti-Trump the way Bette Midler was anti-Karen Carpenter. You know, someone willing to change their opinion once the other one was on life support.
Baud
@satby: True, but would probably use civilized means to get results.
PsiFighter37
@kindness: I am not sure of where Harris’ entire life has been spent, but she is definitely considered part of the NorCal Democratic contingent (she was DA in San Francisco before getting elected statewide).
I would be okay with Xavier Becerra running for DiFi’s seat (and TBH, he was a dark horse candidate that Hillary should’ve heavily considered for VP).
bystander
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: What happened to Turley? Is he trying for a WH job to add to the resume?
Mustang Bobby
@Eric S.: I’m in the Antique Automobile Club of America South Florida; we have our share of Porschers and they’re all mellow.
Sab
@bystander: He is a libertarian. They think weirdly, by Democratic standards.
BlueDWarrior
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Part of the problem that is presented by the Russia conflagration is that it is so snarled one can hardly tell where to begin to try and find evidence of unethical and criminal behavior.
It’s getting to the point where you just want to RICO the entire Trump apparatus, and probably a fair chunk of the upper echelon of elected Republicans.
Which is why the investigations going on in NY State are so interesting, since I think they are along RICO lines.
kd bart
BRING BACK AMERICA’S STEAM BASED ECONOMY!!!!!!
SAVE STEAM JOBS!!!!!
BlueDWarrior
@Sab: Talking to a libertarian at work on a consistent basis, I can vouch for the apparent weirdness of their thought. They are good temp. allies when it comes to issues of privacy; but for anything else, especially when it comes to the snarled web that can be created by large scale criminal enterprises, they go into “Well if that certain individual didn’t do anything in particular, what’s the problem?” mode WAY too much.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: IIRC it was a survey on Jalopnik that ranked PCA as the most elitist or obnoxious car club. I’ve only been with them since September and to one event. While there is a fair amount of old white guys from suburbia who I don’t want to talk politics with, they all seem pretty nice people.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: to save me the googling, what’s the age at which cats qualify for AACA? Here in Illinois, last I checked, they would issue antique plates to any car over 25 years old. My 1992 911 qualifies for that this year.
rikyrah
ICYMI
Please go listen to this testimony. In regular times, this would be leading every broadcast
https://mobile.twitter.com/ava/status/862680443937619968?
rikyrah
@Baud:
Truth, Baud.
TRUTH
Sab
@satby: Difi is a tad old, and also would have been a (moderate) Republican her whole life had she been born anywhere but San Francisco.
Hill Dweller
Add new CIA Director Mike Pompeo to the list of people to be fired. I’m seeing more and more Dems in congress say he is trying to stymie any investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.
Mustang Bobby
@Eric S.: Yes, 25 is the qualification; as of January 1, your car would be able to be in an AACA show. Check out the club (http://www.aaca.org) and think about joining. You probably have a local chapter nearby.
OldDave
@Eric S.:
Member for about two years (Gold Coast chapter). Haven’t found the membership to meet that “expectation”. Pretty nice group. But then, I’m an old white guy from suburbia and perhaps can’t see the forest for the trees.
NorthLeft12
If you guys are counting on the Republican controlled Congress to do something about Deadbeat Donald, I think you are going to be disappointed. Just sayin’.
But don’t despair, November 2018 is not that far away. I mean how much damage can he/they do in another year and a half?
Dog Mom
I think that someone just needs to tell Trump about the investigation into Bill Clinton – they spent months reporting on it and it only really confirmed that BC was a ‘horndog’ (autocorrect wants it to be corndog), and he was probably even more popular afterwards. Say they spent 40 million on it and Trump will probably insist on allocating 80 million! Maybe Ivanka can even design a blue dress!
Mustang Bobby
@OldDave: I’m in the same situation — old white guy in the suburbs (but gay!) with a 1988 Pontiac station wagon. But if you’re thinking obnoxious, I wonder how the Porsche guys hold up against the Corvetters.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: I’ll get on that Jackson stuff later this weekend. Neuroscience and the Law all day today at the Weaver Institute for Law and Psychiatry’s biannual symposium.
@Mustang Bobby: Delightful image! Thank you scholar of Inge.
Jake the antisoshul soshulist
@kindness:
No,no,no Hollywood values are even worse.
Eric S.
@OldDave: Gold Coast as in suburbs north of Chicago? I know there’s more than one place that refers to itself that way.
NorthLeft12
Here’s a health thought for the day; I went back home yesterday [about two hours drive from where I live now] to attend a visitation for a childhood friend that I have not seen since 1983 [my bachelor party]. He was 57 and died of stomach cancer after less than a month after diagnosis. His brothers told me he had not been feeling well and was popping Tums for a few months or so before going to his doctor to get checked out. They got him in quickly and found a tumour in his stomach. By then it was too late and the treatment did not help.
We have single user health care here in Canada, but it won’t do much if you don’t ask for help. He left behind a wife, four married children, and two grandchildren. A really nice guy gone way too early.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: And I always thought you owned a Ford.
OldDave
@Mustang Bobby: There’s a ’93 Miata LE on bringatrailer that keeps whispering sweet nothings in my ear and would make me a potential AACA member in a year – but I suspect SWMBO would kill me in my sleep if I bought it, so I’m looking the other way.
Mustang Bobby
@OldDave: Yeah, good thinking… Bringatrailer is car guy porn. Good thing I already have a full garage and an empty IRA.
amk
I saw that Kamala Harris interview. She is very articulate and gracious. Of course, tapper, the tool, had to ask her why the dems are not extending their hand across the aisle to kill the Obamacare. The 4th estate is the public enemy no.1 of the world.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: here’s a pic of an old wagon I stumbled across Wednesday.
Mustang Bobby
@Eric S.: The 2007 Mustang convertible is my daily driver. I’ve owned the Pontiac since it was a year old and kept it through two Mustangs.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: I scroll through BAT every other day or so. There was an 88 Cutlass Brougham on Monday with an opening bid of $500. Looked almost immaculate. Last I looked it wad sitting around 3gs.
ETA: An even $6000 This morning.
satby
@Sab: no argument from me on that. But in the old days Republican wasn’t an evil thing to be.
And thanks again, John Rogers, for existing.
Mustang Bobby
@Eric S.: Oh, nice. Huge but understated; no fake wood grain, no luggage rack.
low-tech cyclist
Also from that era, “The Worst and the Stupidest.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37: How about Schiff for Senate? I’m hoping that DiFi will retire, though I’d hate to lose Adam as my Congresscritter.
chris
@rikyrah: Here’s a transcript of Watts’ testimony.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/30/russia-s-info-war-on-the-u-s-started-in-2014
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Saw that yesterday on the Twitters. Scary stuff.
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
I’ve been busy and I’m stupid, so can someone tell me why it’s a big deal that the president was photographed meeting with the Russian foreign minister? I mean, presidents meet with foreigners all the time, right?
Soprano2
@Eric S.: Tan-Tar-A is a nice resort, but extremely hilly, so be ready to walk up and down hills a lot. I hope you have a great time!! I’m in Springfield, which is about 1 1/2 hrs south of Tan-Tar-A, or 30 miles north of Branson. LOL
debbie
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim:
In the Oval Office with U.S. press excluded? With Russian “equipment” present?
some guy
BATis my fave porn site. That 88 Cutlas is sweet, but the 1970 Jag XKE closeing today is what floats my boat
debbie
Has this been shared yet? Hope Sarah’s regretting this tweet:
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
@debbie: So there was a Russian press photographer there? And what do you mean by equipment? I’m sorry, but I’m way out of the loop.
lollipopguild
@kd bart: The railroads needed hundreds of thousands of people to maintain all of those steam engines, plus run all of those engines on coal-winnning! Bigly!
Cheryl Rofer
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim: Not so much that the meeting was photographed, but
1) American press organizations were kept out. Only Russian photographers were allowed in. Later, someone in the White House tweeted that they didn’t realize that the photos would be published in the government’s newspaper, Tass. Also, with all that electronic equipment and stuff going on, it would be easy for a photographer to place a bug.
2) The meeting was in the Oval Office. This is a sign of high regard for the visitors and something the Russians have wanted for a long time. The Obama administration never granted it. Apparently Putin asked for it in his last phonecall with Trump. And hey, why not?
ETA: I have been tempted in several comments, including this one, to revive “Also, too,” to indicate the level of the administration’s dumb.
Bruce K
I’m heartened by the thought that even if a Pence pardon could keep the cheeto out of Fort Leavenworth, he could still die in Sing Sing.
hueyplong
What worries me about the photo op is that I see no Americans in the room to assure that Trump isn’t being pantsed by the visiting Russians. How can this damaged person be left unattended with enemies? I like it for interviews, but not for Russian encounters. WTF?
amk
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim: It’s as much about the photos themselves (all pally, pally, with definitely not your friend types) as about who took those photos and who weren’t allowed to take those photos.
Geeno
@low-tech cyclist: I would have gone with “the Worst and the Dimmest” as the title.
MomSense
Having some coffee and breakfast in the cafe. My dad’s surgery went very well but he was under s long time. He hasn’t woken up yet so of course we get more anxious as time passes. My step mom fainted when we went into his CICUroom. I think it was the built up stress of the day, the lack of sleep, and all the machines.
We can’t really sleep so the whole thing is a bit surreal. I did manage to stretch out by putting my legs through the arm rests of a whole line of chairs. There are a couple of chair bed things but we let the my stepmom and the mom of another patient take them.
Hope gnG has another better day today. I’m in a 45 free zone right now so you will have to fight those evil jerks without me today.
amk
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim: ok, we got ourselves a new one acting all ignorant.
satby
@hueyplong: any Americans likely to be there are as compromised as Drumpf is, and probably just as clueless to getting played.
“Sure, Russian photographer who is totally not a spy, it’s fine for you to set your bag down over there where we can’t really see it. We’re not watching you anyway, the boss likes all eyes on him at all times.”
Cheryl Rofer
@hueyplong:
This is something that has bothered me, too. Lavrov and Kiselyak both speak good English, so an interpreter wasn’t needed, but I would have had one in the background to listen in on asides they may have made to each other. Although they are pretty smart and probably wouldn’t do that. A photo of Tillerson meeting Putin included Putin’s interpreter, but none was shown for Tillerson. Is he using Putin’s interpreter? So that the interpreter could say one thing in English when Putin says another in Russian? Even if a person is fluent in the language, an interpreter allows time to think and a double-check on what is said.
There should be note-takers, in any case, although they don’t always show up in the photos, and I would think that President Donald would particularly like his photos not to include peons.
satby
@MomSense: whoa, I missed that something bad happened to your dad, hope he’s better today. Healing thoughts and hugs to all.
I also missed a gnG update. Was that in an overnight thread?
satby
@amk: he’s not new, just infrequently comments.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
Is it too much to hope that Trump’s set up his own Nixon-style recording system? He seems to be following in Nixon’s path re. cover-up, etc.
debbie
@satby:
Is it me, or are people starting to jump on others much more quickly?
Oldgold
When Bill Clinton had a meet and greet with Loretta Lynch it was seen as damn near the end of the rule of law.
Trump dining alone with Comey – not do much.
JMG
@debbie: Trump just tweeted that Comey better hope there are no “tapes” (he put that in quotes, God knows why) of their conversations.
Another Scott
Good morning everyone. (Haven’t read the thread yet.)
Here we go!:
Why is tapes in quotes?
Twitter says it was ~ 8 minutes ago, so why is the time stamp 3 hours earlier? Is he in California or something?
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@JMG:
He gets worse every day since the election.
I don’t believe Comey told him he wasn’t under investigation. He’s probably afraid Comey will contradict that.
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
@Cheryl Rofer: Jeez, I hadn’t heard that the other press were kept out. Yeah, that is kind of a problem. I mean, if it was just Trump’s photographer, sure, it’s his office, but outsiders and not the US press…that’s just dumb. I mean, how do they think that looks?
And have Russians really not been in the Oval Office before? Not even Yeltsin? I did not know that.
@amk: No, I really was ignorant about this particular thing. Lots of other things, too, but this is what I chose to reveal this morning.
Kay
So can Comey speak to that now that he’s fired? Can he say he never told Trump he wasn’t under investigation? Or is there some bar to him doing that, even after he’s no longer employed there?
Eric S.
@Soprano2: Hilly and curvy are what us Porsche drivers call ideal.
The roads! I’m referring to the roads, people.
Immanentize
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Hey — so cool on the neuroscience stuff. I am huge fan and advocate. I don’t know if you knew, but I’ve been working the neuroscience “kids are different” stuff for years. I was co-counsel on Montgomery v. Lousiana (retroactivity is my special illness).
meanwhile, seriously no hurry on the other issue — we have until August to decide whether to add our “friend” voice.
TS
Sen Durbin – Rod Rosenstein has 2 options
1. Appoint a special prosecutor
2. Resign
amk
@Another Scott: Is he saying that he wiretapped comey during his lunch/dinner or whatev? wtf?
Kay
Trump is getting measurably worse. He’s crazier now than when he started. You wonder how nuts he can go before someone acts.
Aleta
Eric S.
@some guy: oh sure, force me to go look during work hours.
With the original 4.2L straight six. Very, very nice.
Shalimar
@hueyplong: Just because they weren’t in the pictures doesn’t mean they weren’t there. Trump is never alone. He probably takes someone with him when he pees. There is no way handlers weren’t there to help fill in the blanks of his nonsense.
gvg
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim: OKayyyy…..The President is suspected of colluding with Russia to influence our election. He fires the guy investigating him, which is acting guilty in they eyes of the public. He has a meeting with the Russian Ambassador the next day, which does not reassure the public let us say. He excludes the American press so we can only speculate about what was talked about, and speculation is justified, however it’s also going to let whoever leans conspiracy theory to really go to town, so I think that was a double error. Then he lets the Russians bring a photographer with him. The meeting is in the oval office which has a lot of world wide prestige. The ambassador from Ukraine only got to meet with the vice President and his nose was rubbed into how much better Trump was treating the Russian which must frighten his whole country. The Russians are known to like planting bugs so letting them in unsupervised by professionals is reckless. Trump doesn’t trust the pro in our own government and has hired a bunch of clowns so you know they would be easy to fool. Former experts have said it was very bad the Russin’s were in the oval office, meaning now we have to worry about bugs in the presidents office. We only got pictures from the Russian press. the Russian Ambassador was mocking to the Americans after the meeting about Comey’s firing. Trump has been crass and insulting to America’s allies and their leaders so being nice to Russia is really not good anyway.
That’s all I can recall off the top of my head. Enough?
MomSense
@satby:
Yes it was sometime late night maybe. They were able to manage gnGs pain much better yesterday thank dog.
I was driving north and about 15 minutes from the hospital when I got the call that my dad was being transported by helicopter. He had a dissected aorta. The good throng is that I was here to meet him at the helicopter and was with him right until the surgery so he knew we would all be there andndidnt have to go through it alone.
The surgeon looks like a Hollywood cast surgeon. We were joking that he probably just greets all the patients, puts them at ease, and the real surgeon is hidden in the Operating room.
satby
@debbie: it’s not you. I think people are just sensitive to the notion that we might be arguing with bots.
Another Scott
@Eric S.: A friend of mine in Ohio has/had one of those (different year) in white. 455. The hood is about 20 feet long. It’s a beast. Don’t get in the way once it gets a full head of steam!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Aleta:
Huckabee Sanders is an even bigger liar than Spicer. She invented something involving herself. She was asked for proof of the FBI hating Comey and she said she knew they hated him because she had been told this personally, by agents.
That’s a new level of crazy. They’re now pointing to themselves, their own experiences, to validate Trump’s lies.
germy
@Aleta:
Poor Spicer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and bragging about how he brought up FBI business, asked for loyalty, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…
he’s now threatening Comey, and by extension all other government employees, officers and electeds, on twitter, but this also too is fine
ETA: I imagine the tweets and transcripts of every Republican Senator and MoC are being combed through for their reaction to the plane meeting– might be a long Sunday
Certified Mutant Enemy
@kd bart:
Also buggy whip manufacturers!
Shalimar
@Kay: I believe Comey told him “you are not a target of the investigation” in carefully chosen language, and Trump took it as an assurance that he will never be charged with anything.
Cheryl Rofer
@debbie: I doubt that he is capable of that much foresight.
satby
@MomSense: thank you! That must have been so frightening for you, but it was good that you were so close. And now you must be exhausted. More healing thoughts to your dad and another virtual hug for you. I hope you can get some rest.
And I did go back and find the greennotGreen update from her sister too. Still holding gnG in my thoughts and heart, as well as her entire family.
JMG
@Kay: It’s already been leaked that Comey denies it, quoting current and former FBI officials. Gosh, what former official could that be? You’re right about Trump. He has degenerated from erratic to crazier than a bedbug in four months. And the pace of degeneration is increasing.
dogwood
@Another Scott:
That Comey tweet/threat encapsulates all anyone needs to know about who Trump is and how he operates.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It’s, I believe, a question of rank. It’s very unusual for someone of cabinet rank, foreign minister Lavrov, to have a meeting with POTUS in the Oval Office.
Another Scott
@Cheryl Rofer: On the bugging stuff – I would assume that anyone entering the White House has to go through a fairly thorough search, doubly-so if they’re going in the non-quasi-public places. But, yeah, bugs can be very, very small. Still, I would assume that Lavrov and Putin wouldn’t be stupid enough to try to bug the place. Why would they need to? They’ve already got their men inside.
:-(
(I have no inside information.)
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who agrees that it’s an outrage that the meeting happened there the way it did, especially given what’s going on with the investigations, Comey’s firing, etc., etc.)
Cheryl Rofer
Also –
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
@gvg: Why worry about bugs when the Russians may have actual people making reports to them?
Shalimar
@Aleta: When you read those tweets, keep in mind that our image of Trump waking up at 4am tweeting by himself was apparently wrong. According to one of the recent profiles, Trump’s tweeting is basically a spectator sport in the Oval Office. Dozens of people gather around the room to watch. Any of those people could theoretically stop him from making a fool of himself or at least edit some of it.
hueyplong
Trump is cognitively damaged. His threat about “tapes” merely generates concern that everything is being recorded and chills the already microscopic chance that anyone will give him frank and/or difficult advice. Ever.
Republicans’ concern for the nation’s welfare is now underperforming the seemingly insulting standard I had applied to them.
Cheryl Rofer
@Another Scott: I would have the Oval Office swept for bugs. But that’s just me.
satby
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: which is why most presidents have had a chief of protocol, but that’s just another position El Stupido didn’t bother to fill.
Immanentize
@MomSense: Wow. I didn’t know you went through that — Good timing for him and for you. Good luck today.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@satby: he wouldn’t care– apparently Putin, who understands things the import of things like this that @Cheryl Rofer: trumpy doesn’t, asked for the meeting. The Europeans all saw it, too, and the Syrians, and…
And it’s no accident that Lavrov publicly praised trump as a ‘businessman’. They know how laughably– or terrifyingly– easy it is to manipulate this buffoon.
Kay
@Shalimar:
It’s just such a crazy defense, even putting aside that he’s 1. lying and 2. a moron.
It’s not a defense. It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump is not personally a target of an investigation into the Trump Administration. That doesn’t justify Donald Trump firing the investigator. It’s something a child would say. He’s seizing on this narrow “I, MYSELF did not personally coordinate…” So fucking what? It’s YOUR administration he’s investigating.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Good god…
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-tivos-senate-hearings-so-he-can-make-fun-of-them-later
Trump literally thinks, thinking, is a sign of weakness. Trump is just the hind brain and nothing else. No wonder the 27% love him.
Zach
LOL at Trump’s tweets today.
Suffice to say, if you have the goods on someone you don’t conduct your extortion in public. That’s what you do when you’re full of it and hope someone will walk away when threatened with muddying themselves in a mess of mutual humiliation. It works well when walking away is an option and I’m sure it’s worked over and again for Trump in business. It doesn’t work so well when there’s a risk the person you’re trying to scare away will face a subpoena and knows the best thing to do when facing extortion is to bring it into the light.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@lollipopguild:
The railroads needed hundreds of thousands of people to maintain all of those steam engines, plus run all of those engines on coal-winnning! Bigly!
Most of the last generation of steam engines burned oil…
LurkerNoLonger
@Aleta: I’m beginning to wonder if he has mistaken Twitter for Instant Message? Maybe this whole time all these tweets were supposed to be private messages to Ivanka.
Another Scott
@Cheryl Rofer: Oh, absolutely.
“The Oval Office is closed for the next 3 months for much-needed renovations…”
Our friends in the IC could use the time to quietly put a bunch of 960 fps cameras and microphones in the for documentary purposes. Yeah, documentary. That’s the ticket.
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Shalimar: Yes, “not a target” is very specific language. Targets get target letters only after the case goes to a grand jury = I’ve never known anyone to be told they were a target before a GJ was convened unless the feds were trying to squeeze them to flip. Even then. IME, they put it into the future tense — “you will be a target of this investigation unless….”
debbie
@Aleta:
Yeah, I just came across that thread. I have to laugh; he’s only making things worse.
Cheryl Rofer
Let’s see if gifs embed with tweets.
tobie
@Aleta: Oh.my.god. I’m speechless.
gvg
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim: Bugs would be more accurate. These people are not good with truth nor factual observation. of course even lies can tell experts things, so both I guess would be better.
Proving to us that our government is run by idiots undermines our confidence. suppose some crisis happens? We could trust Obama to do the best that could be managed and even Bush tried. With Trump, I would generally be against any big action even if I would have supported it with any other president. He’d screw it up so badly and I would probably not believe him if he said the sky was blue….pretty sure I am not the only one.
Russia has managed to put an anchor on us.
Immanentize
@MomSense: ETA — No joke, yesterday evening I saw a woman in a blue outback seemingly yelling at the radio — but it ended up she was singing and not well dressed. And on 93. Still I thought of you —
Shalimar
@Kay: All he cares about is himself. I was raised by a narcissist, so I am very familiar with the twisting reality. They do it to manipulate, so their story sometimes changes a little bit at a time until they find one that seems to work on you. And they seem to honestly believe each version.
GregB
Fucking great. This season of Idiocracy has been pre-empted by The Godfather.
clay
@gvg: It’s worth adding that we (Americans) did not know that Kislyak was attending the meeting until the photos showed up on Russian news sites. Were they trying to keep Kislyak’s presence a secret? Why was he not announced?
We cannot trust ANYTHING out of this administration.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I don’t believe he even said that. Comey can’t discuss an investigation of the Trump Administration with Trump. He can’t do that.
Immanentize
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Perfectly true. They are him and vice versa.
Cheryl Rofer
@clay: Ambassadors usually attend a meeting like this, but they don’t usually show up in photos or readouts.
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
After what’s in office right now, they never have the right to utter the word values again. Assuming that the GOP hasn’t grown a pair by then, she would be running against the Shitgibbon, and like Obama she would be a relatively young unknown without 29 years of baggage. She’d kick his ass.
Another Scott
@Kay: It’s also a lie, one of too many, anyway.
(Grab a sentence and do a Google search for the FTFNYT and Reuters articles.)
He’s brain damaged. He’s compromised. He’s dangerous. He needs to go.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Que in the Senate asking for those tapes, as per Watergate.
clay
@Kay:
I said it yesterday, but only Trump would think that ‘Trump’ is not a subset of ‘the Trump campaign’.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: I’ve seen Watts on one of the MSNBC shows (probably Maddow) – he’s a great commentator on these issues.
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: Is the attendance of ambassadors usually made public in advance?
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Patricia Kayden:
Republicans would accuse her of having “San Francisco values”
In other words, she doesn’t hate “those people.”
Immanentize
@Kay: You have more faith in that concept than I do — Trump is, after all, the FBI Director’s boss and I am not sold on the idea that Comey was the last honest man in Washington. He responds to authority and chains of command.
Immanentize
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That would be an amazing turn of events — that Trump is secretly taping himself (of course he is) and he himself lets that fact slip?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I have trouble keeping their histories straight, but I think this guy is a past consigliere to McCain and Kasich
Somebody said Kasich had made some surprisingly anodyne remarks about Trump firing Comey, which surprises me not because I have high regard for Kasich, but because I know Kasich has extremely high regard for himself, and I figured this would be a chance for him to polish his fantasy about 2020
hovercraft
@MomSense:
Wishing your Dad a speedy recovery.
And sending positive thoughts and love to gnG and her wonderful family.
Also too, best wishes to Yarrow if you’re lurking out there, come back soon, we miss you.
Kay
@Another Scott:
The whole thing is crazy. Current, employed FBI agents are discussing Comey’s firing with Huckabee Sanders? They text her or something? Wouldn’t this chit chat compromise their investigation into the administration that employs Huckabee Sanders?
They can hardly re-open Clinton now. FOX news has already told us there’s a group of them who want her prosecuted. They’re completely compromised. That’s leaving aside the fact that they don’t determine who is prosecuted. That is in no way their job.
Jeffro
@Kay:
He’s gotten worse at each stage of this slow-motion train wreck, that’s for sure. From 18 months ago ’til now. The way he acted between Election Day and Inauguration Day alone should have gotten him down to 27% approval if not lower.
I’m just glad that the Russia story is the RUSSIA STORY all day every day now. It’ll drive him insane(r) and make it harder for him and his band of thieves to do as much damage as they otherwise would.
Chris
@satby:
From that article:
Some parts of it have aged badly.
But yes, I agree. John Rogers is still a kickass human being.
ETA: this, in the comments section, is arguably much more spot on:
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
I canNOT wait until SNL!
Cheryl Rofer
@clay: I’m not sure – depends on how the meetings are announced. And, as in everything else for this administration, the daily schedules are often incomplete.
ETA: A protocol chief would help make these things go more smoothly, but that’s one more position the administration doesn’t think is necessary.
hovercraft
@Another Scott:
The “expert” I heard from last night, was talking about devices hat just need to be in proximity to say the Shitgibbons phone to clone it and then hack into it or something, I’m not an expert and don’t play one on TV, but I did spend last night at a Holiday Inn Express ; D
D58826
At the time there was chatter that Nixon would not have been impeached if Agnew was still VP. Fortunately the VP was Jerry Ford, not perfect but basically an honorable man.
Scroll forward and is Pence any better, or a more honest choice than Trump? Pence, Ryan, McConnell are all fatally compromised.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If Kasich could get thru a primary, he could win. Luckily the GOP base is so insane he’ll never get thru a primary.
Trumpians loathe him.
Sab
@hovercraft: What is the point of tapping his phone? He can’t hold a thought for more than 30 seconds, so anything you heard would be outdated before it got to your eats.
TS
@Immanentize:
Per wiki – Since the 1920s, the FBI has been supervised by the Department of Justice and the FBI Director has answered to the Attorney General.
jacy
@Shalimar:
I can attest — they make up something to fit their narrative, and they wholly believe it. It becomes reality. And they’re genuinely nonplussed when you tell them something they believe happened did not happen or visa versa. It’s jarring the first couple of times it happens. They’ll make something up and it becomes absolutely true for them. That’s why people subject to narcissists start to feel they themselves are crazy and doubt their own recollections. But it’s not that they’re trying to fool you or lie to you, they have created a different reality that they now believe is the truth.
Chris
@Shalimar:
The fact that half the electorate seems to think this way, at least on anything remotely related to politics, is cause for concern.
Fester Addams
@debbie:
Doesn’t really need to. He can record stuff with the same phone the Russians use to keep an eye on him.
Kay
@Chris:
The fact that half the electorate can’t tell a bad person from a good person is shocking. Just ordinary ethics and behavior. Trump is bottom of the barrel. It’s flashing neon “stay AWAY from this person” It’s all they needed to know! No further analysis required.
Immanentize
@TS: And the Attorney General is under the President. That’s like saying because your boss reports to a Vice President of the Company, the VIce President of the Company is not your boss. Further, by statute, the Attorney General CANNOT fire the Head of the FBI — only the President can. So who is the boss of the Director of the FBI? The person he reports to? Or the person who can fire him?
schrodingers_cat
I do not care about T’s mental state and the speculative psych evaluation. I don’t wish to understand what makes him tick. He is breaking laws and norms with impunity. He needs to be stopped along with his enablers in the R party.
hovercraft
@Cheryl Rofer:
“Also, too,” and “All of them Katie” are BJ staples that will never go out of style. Frighteningly, Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods is actually smarter than a lot of these people, while she exploited the hell out of her fifteen minutes, she was smart enough to know her limitations and refrain from running for president, she knew that it involved actual hard work.
Kay
That just makes me sad. What a waste- of the people who will be incarcerated, of money, of time.
There was real movement on this. Sessions is undoing a decade of rational thought beating irrational fear. He’s just a terrible AG and he’s just warming up.
debbie
@Aleta:
If anyone else had said that, I’d think maybe it really was said. But with Trump saying it, I know for sure whatever he says was said was never said. You can guarantee that anything Trump says is the exact opposite of the truth. I wonder if he realizes it?
I’m off to morning coffee with my cousin who has a PhD in psychology and counseling. She’ll explain this to me.
Iowa Old Lady
I’m in Prague, struggling to keep up with the crazy in the White House. This morning, the BBC was repeatedly marveling at how the explanation for the firing changed repeatedly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I missed this the other day
I don’t think we’ll ever find out the whole truth, but I suspect Rudi played a huge role in all the NY-FBI office leaking and trolling that helped push Comey to writing his Oct letter, and probably with some back-channel communication with CHaffetz’s committee. And it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if somewhere in there was a Russian directed alt-right group whispering in Rudi’s ears, or those of that retired FBI agent who was flogging all this with him. Not that they were aware of Russian meddling, rather they were useful idiots.
hovercraft
@Cheryl Rofer:
Didn’t Gin and Tonic also point out that the Ukrainian Prime Minister or something was in DC that same day, and all he got was to meet Pence who walked him into the Oval Office where Twitler didn’t even offer him a seat, and Ukraine is ostensibly our ally.
debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
I usually listen to the BBC while falling asleep. I love that undertone of bemusement in their voices when talking about anything Trump-related.
ThresherK
@Kay: I wish it weren’t that obvious, but: Which of Sessions’ buddies has a lot of stock in Corrections Corp of America?
hovercraft
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
So Obama must be really, really dumb, no wonder Twitler wanted to see his transcripts, he obviously barely scraped through if at all! The 27% love having a smarter version of themselves in the White House, it shows all those smarty pants with all their edumacation that they can be president too, and just look at what a bang up job their hero is doing. He’s ignoring all the “experts” and doing it the common sense way just like they would, and nothing bad has happened, in fact everything is better than it’s ever been.
clay
The most frustrating thing about this — about ALL of this — is that everything was entirely predictable and unsurprising. Everything — the corruption, the erratic behavior, the incompetence, the ties to Russia, the ignorance about how government [or anything] works, the bullying, the obvious disregard for norms and conventions and the rule of law…
All of this was visible during the campaign, and a lot of us were screaming from the rooftop, desperately warning people of the danger of this orange buffoon.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the media and (most of) the public are starting to be horrified by what’s going on. (Congressional Republican, with very few exceptions, are as usual profiles in venality.) But anyone who is shocked by this just simply wasn’t paying attention, or just didn’t want to accept what was blindingly true.
This could’ve been avoided. Easily.
Cheryl Rofer
@hovercraft: Yep
clay
@hovercraft:
That might be dead on. “Obama paused to think of what to say, therefore he’s stupid.” It would explain why Trump has his verbal diarrhea — he think it makes him look smart. (Not realizing, of course, how much trouble his babbling gets him in.)
By the way, shouldn’t we start demanding to see his transcripts, and his birth certificate while we’re at it? It was good for the goose, after all.
NotMax
It’s been reported that in private life Dolt 45’s own lawyers insist that at least a pair of them be present in meetings with him in order to provide witness to what they said as opposed to what he says they said.
AFAIK, Comey did not heed this precaution.
hovercraft
@Sab:
True, but they would have a running record of what his plans are, for the moment, it would make it easier to make contingency plans at least until someone else flattered him.
Now the people required to listen would have to be given hazard pay, because listening to h bloviate all day would make you go crazy or drive you to drink.
clay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That makes sense, and if Comey was threatening to punish these NY agents, it would tie in with Cole’s post about the possibility of these agents making their displeasure known to the WH.
I don’t think that it’s why Comey was fired though. Trump doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would orchestrate a cover-up on someone else’s (i.e., Rudy’s) behalf. He’s much more likely to throw them to the wolves to save himself.
Another Scott
@Kay: There is a (twisted, evil) logic to it. The main purpose is to reduce the number of people who can vote so that the Teabaggers can retain power.
Eyes on the prize.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
What the Commission on Election Integrity Tells Us About Trump
by Nancy LeTourneau May 12, 2017 7:00 AM
With the signing of an executive order creating a commission on election integrity, Trump is finally fulfilling his promise to put VP Pence in charge of an investigation into his lies about massive voter fraud. They are touting this as a bipartisan effort by claiming that the commission will not only investigate voter fraud, but that voter suppression with also be a part of its charter.
But it is interesting to note that, as Ed Kilgore wrote, Pence is “what passes for a bipartisan figure in the administration.” Martin has already weighed in on the racist Trump appointed to be the other co-chair, Kris Kobach. I’d simply ad this little tidbit from a profile on Koblach that Suzy Khimm did a few years ago.
This is the man, along with Pence, that Trump has put in charge of a commission they are suggesting will be “bipartisan,” someone who is anathema to everything Democrats believe in when it comes to civil rights and voting rights.
………………
What is important about all this is that it provides a pretty good window into why Trump and his administration are incapable of doing anything in a bipartisan manner. The pretext of this commission would be like President Obama appointing Louis Farrakhan to investigate religious tolerance, adding a couple of Republican back-benchers and calling it bipartisan. Can you imagine the howls we’d hear from the right about that?
hueyplong
@schrodingers_cat: the psych talk is not meant to excuse Trump’s behavior. It is meant to predict that it will inevitably continue. It is an argument for removing him now.
Tazj
@clay: This. Most of the press and the cable news networks were all caught up in the sweeping “populism” of 45’s campaign and his ability to whip his followers into a frenzy.
I saw this from Matt Yglesias @mattyglesias
Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort was fined for significant and long standing anti-money laundering violations. This happened in March 2015, but “crooked Hillary.”
@MomSense: Good thoughts for you and your family for a full recovery for your dad.
Steeplejack
@Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim:
Russians have been in the Oval Office before. Part of the controversy now is that after sanctions against Russia were instituted in 2013 the Russkies got dropped to the D-list—“No Oval Office for you!”—which became a hot button for them, something that they continually brought up. And now Trump has (no surprise) blithely stepped on four years of U.S. policy. And he did it in the most punk’d way possible.
Shalimar
@hovercraft: Palin is a textbook narcissist too, as are McCain and Lieberman. It was noticing between 2006-2008 how strongly all 3 fit the profile that made me realize how prevalent narcissists are in politics. It is a field ideally suited for that mental illness to thrive.
low-tech cyclist
@Geeno:
Who am I to correct a Doonesbury strip?
laura
@PsiFighter37: I snagged a ticket to the Sacramento Press Club luncheon this coming Monday. If anyone’s interested I’ll report out after.